Ten healthy reasons to drink a cup of tea

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Drinking tea might stop you having a stroke. A meta-analysis of nine studies revealed that people who drank three or more cups of tea (black or green) had a 21% lower risk.

You could lower your cholesterol. Drinking a brew has been shown to cut cholesterol in people with mildly raised levels. But it’ll take more than one cup – the study concerned had participants downing five cups a day of black tea over three weeks.

You might cut your chances of dying from heart disease. Dutch researchers concluded that people who downed between three and six cups of black tea a day had a 45% reduced risk.

Tea may bring down blood pressure. French research showed that heavy tea-drinkers had lower blood pressure than people who never touched the stuff. On average, systolic blood pressure was 4-5mmHg lower while the diastolic reading was 3mmHG lower.

You’re less likely to die of non heart-related causes. Tea is stuffed with antioxidants, which prevent or delay cell damage in the body. This might explain why the same French study found that the risk of death from non-cardiovascular reasons dropped 24% among tea-drinkers.

Hot tea helps you chill. When University College London researchers gave male volunteers stressful tasks, they found that cortisol levels dropped more quickly among the group which drank four cups of tea a day for six weeks than among volunteers drinking ‘fake’ tea.

Green tea boosts brain power. In a recent Swiss study, researchers showed that volunteers who took green tea extract did better in working memory tasks and had improved brain connectivity on an MRI scan.

Your brew could stop you going blind. Scientists found evidence that antioxidants in green tea penetrated the tissues of the eye, potentially protecting against glaucoma and other eye diseases.

Go green to shed kilos. A compound in green tea has been found to slow down weight gain. Another tool in the battle against obesity, perhaps?

Green tea may fight cancer. Different studies suggest that it may destroy cancer cells and block their growth, particularly in prostate, pancreas, bladder, colon and stomach tumours. It might also have a role in reducing your risk of developing, among others, skin, lung, mouth and bladder cancer.